Abstract ? Pilot Research Program In accordance with the NPRC guidelines and the FOA, the Tulane National Primate Research Center (TNPRC) Pilot Research Program provides funding to investigators who show promise of developing a career in nonhuman primate biomedical research or to those who wish to add a nonhuman primate component to an existing research program. The Pilot Research Program is also open to investigators with established nonhuman primate research programs who wish to develop substantially new research directions. Research may involve initial model identification, characterization, and development that may follow a case workup of a spontaneously occurring disease, evaluation of improved husbandry or animal management procedures, or more detailed examination of serendipitous laboratory findings. Pilot Research Program support is typically for proposals that do not have sufficient preliminary data or results that are needed to obtain support from normal sources of funding. The overall purpose of the project must complement the objectives of the Center?s research programs, and the projects themselves must have the potential of leading to an extramurally funded grant application. The proposal must be substantially different from the applicant?s funded projects. Investigators must be beyond the postdoctoral rank and based at any non-profit academic or research institution. If the applicant is not a TNPRC Core Staff Scientist, they must secure sponsorship from such a Core Scientist. The latter will assume responsibility for overall management, coordination and reports concerning the project. In general, all major activities related to the approved project must be conducted and carried out on site at the Center. The number of extramural grants that were awarded this funding period, made possible by Pilot Grants was 12. There were 3 RO1 grants, 3 R21 grants, and one grant of each of the following types: R33, COBRE, R56, P20, Foundation, and DoD. The number of papers published during this funding period based on experiments funded with pilot grants was 27.